Mental Health In College Students Essay
According to the American College Health Association's most recent annual survey, 30 percent of college students felt so depressed that it was difficult for them to function (Lieblich10). Depression and anxiety is a major issue for college students and while there are many causes of the mental health crisis and I have found the lack of administration in colleges and the dramatic transition from high school to college to have a great effect on the health of college students. In solving the college mental health crisis one could name a plethora of possible solutions , however I believe that improving a college’s mental health center and finding activities that de-stress students can be beneficial to the overall mental health of college students.
One reason there is a mental health crisis in college students especially college freshmen is that there is a vast transition from high school to college. I know this to be true as last year when I was a high school senior, I felt as if I had ruled the world. I knew almost everyone in my school , the principal, my teachers as I had a Spanish …show more content…
teacher that I had class with for four years, I had many friends that I knew from my freshman year of high school. In addition to that high school was really easy academically, for example I had a history class where I had a lecture for two days and then I would watch a movie for the next four days and my teacher would repeat this cycle throughout the whole year. This class was so easy that I spent one and a half hours studying for a fifty question final and got a perfect score on that final. While the majority of my classes were not as easy as this class they were still quite laid back as I was able to just show up to class , do few if any homework assignments that I received. This led to me getting great grades in high school which put me among the top students in my class. Then as I transitioned to Cal State LA, I saw the vast differences between high school and college. First, as I am an honors college student, I have classes with students that a great of intelligence and I feel that instead of being at the cream of the crop that I was a mediocre student ,especially in my honor courses. Then , as the semester progressed the coursework started pilling and I have had trouble just organizing my time and staying on top of everything. Additionally, I have had to make a whole new set of friends and in contrary to high school ,I only know a handful of people. There have been many changes within the last few months and it has not been easy for me to adapt to these changes.
Secondly, a poor handling by college administration of the college mental health crisis has been a great reason why there is college mental crisis. This system starts from the administrators that do not take this problem seriously. For instance, in the Newsweek article by Baker, Dan a student at Princeton who had depression had been expelled after he had overdosed on pills. Likewise, Shireen, a student at UCSB, got in trouble with her school after she was cutting herself. She had to give up her confidentiality of her therapy reports so that she could stay in school and if she sounded dangerous in any way she would be kicked out of her school. Shireen’s mother states “Instead of helping her get stronger, they harassed her”. (Baker 25) Colleges and universities would rather expel and punish students rather than treat them. This is a common dilemma that happens around the country. But, then when the students seek help or treatment they go to health center where the therapists are overloaded with cases and underfunded. An example of this is when Ben Locke, associate director of clinical services at Penn State University states that “a student is having panic attacks about coming to class, but the wait list at the counseling center is two to five weeks out. So something the student could recover from quickly might only get worse,”(Hoffman 25). Underfunding of Colleges Mental Health Programs worsen the crisis of mental health and there has to be a reform that changes this.
First and foremost, colleges need to increase the funding for college health centers and for the hiring of therapists as now there is a greater need than ever for therapists on a college campus. In recent years, colleges and universities in California, adopted new guidelines for dealing with mental health and have planned to implement more funding towards mental health. A prime example of this that the California State University system, which has twenty-three campuses including Cal State LA, has adopted the Red folder which is a reference guide developed by the University of California and has common mental health situations and ways to respond to these situations. The red folder seems like a great tool for colleges to use to help students with their depression and anxiety as there are many different situations that have resulted due to a student mental health issue such as a decline in the quality of schoolwork, panic attacks, and even direct threats. There has also been a planned increase in funding towards mental health in the University of California school system as they plan to increase the student services fee by 5 percent which would generate twenty two million dollars by 2018-2019 school year and part of that money will be used to hire more mental health clinicians as there are currently long wait lists for counseling services in UC campuses (Rivera 21).Increasing funding doesn’t just help students with their health problems , it also increases the number of students who graduate from college. The increased number of graduates due to California’s funding in college mental health would bring an additional 56 million dollars to the economy according to the RAND corporation study. Therefore, this concludes that if college increase their funding towards mental health then they increase the number of graduates and ultimately increase the amount of money that will be generated in the economy.
Another solution to the college mental health problem is to have different ways to help students relieve stress and anxiety such as the Paws a -tively Stress Free event at the University of Central Florida.
At this event the university’s health center brings dogs to campus so that students can pet the dogs to relieve the stress of taking finals. This event attracts about 75 students in a short span of two hours. Dogs tend too great for relieving stress as Joanne Goldwater, associate dean of students and director of residence life at St. Mary’s College of Maryland states “Having that animal has clearly helped to reduce stress and anxiety for some students”. Dogs can have a great effect on a person they are like a best friend. In my experience, I have found dogs to be comforting and sometimes just petting or holding a dog is all you need to feel better when you have a great deal of
stress.
The college health crisis is a major issue across the nation and there are many causes however the dramatic transition to college and the poor handling of college mental health are the greatest reasons of why there is a crisis .While there is no one solution to fixing this problem ,improving and funding a colleges mental health center and having events such as the “Paws -a-tively stress free” could greatly improve the mental health of college students and would in turn improve the economy by millions of dollars.
One reason there is a mental health crisis in college students especially college freshmen is that there is a vast transition from high school to college. I know this to be true as last year when I was a high school senior, I felt as if I had ruled the world. I knew almost everyone in my school , the principal, my teachers as I had a Spanish …show more content…
teacher that I had class with for four years, I had many friends that I knew from my freshman year of high school. In addition to that high school was really easy academically, for example I had a history class where I had a lecture for two days and then I would watch a movie for the next four days and my teacher would repeat this cycle throughout the whole year. This class was so easy that I spent one and a half hours studying for a fifty question final and got a perfect score on that final. While the majority of my classes were not as easy as this class they were still quite laid back as I was able to just show up to class , do few if any homework assignments that I received. This led to me getting great grades in high school which put me among the top students in my class. Then as I transitioned to Cal State LA, I saw the vast differences between high school and college. First, as I am an honors college student, I have classes with students that a great of intelligence and I feel that instead of being at the cream of the crop that I was a mediocre student ,especially in my honor courses. Then , as the semester progressed the coursework started pilling and I have had trouble just organizing my time and staying on top of everything. Additionally, I have had to make a whole new set of friends and in contrary to high school ,I only know a handful of people. There have been many changes within the last few months and it has not been easy for me to adapt to these changes.
Secondly, a poor handling by college administration of the college mental health crisis has been a great reason why there is college mental crisis. This system starts from the administrators that do not take this problem seriously. For instance, in the Newsweek article by Baker, Dan a student at Princeton who had depression had been expelled after he had overdosed on pills. Likewise, Shireen, a student at UCSB, got in trouble with her school after she was cutting herself. She had to give up her confidentiality of her therapy reports so that she could stay in school and if she sounded dangerous in any way she would be kicked out of her school. Shireen’s mother states “Instead of helping her get stronger, they harassed her”. (Baker 25) Colleges and universities would rather expel and punish students rather than treat them. This is a common dilemma that happens around the country. But, then when the students seek help or treatment they go to health center where the therapists are overloaded with cases and underfunded. An example of this is when Ben Locke, associate director of clinical services at Penn State University states that “a student is having panic attacks about coming to class, but the wait list at the counseling center is two to five weeks out. So something the student could recover from quickly might only get worse,”(Hoffman 25). Underfunding of Colleges Mental Health Programs worsen the crisis of mental health and there has to be a reform that changes this.
First and foremost, colleges need to increase the funding for college health centers and for the hiring of therapists as now there is a greater need than ever for therapists on a college campus. In recent years, colleges and universities in California, adopted new guidelines for dealing with mental health and have planned to implement more funding towards mental health. A prime example of this that the California State University system, which has twenty-three campuses including Cal State LA, has adopted the Red folder which is a reference guide developed by the University of California and has common mental health situations and ways to respond to these situations. The red folder seems like a great tool for colleges to use to help students with their depression and anxiety as there are many different situations that have resulted due to a student mental health issue such as a decline in the quality of schoolwork, panic attacks, and even direct threats. There has also been a planned increase in funding towards mental health in the University of California school system as they plan to increase the student services fee by 5 percent which would generate twenty two million dollars by 2018-2019 school year and part of that money will be used to hire more mental health clinicians as there are currently long wait lists for counseling services in UC campuses (Rivera 21).Increasing funding doesn’t just help students with their health problems , it also increases the number of students who graduate from college. The increased number of graduates due to California’s funding in college mental health would bring an additional 56 million dollars to the economy according to the RAND corporation study. Therefore, this concludes that if college increase their funding towards mental health then they increase the number of graduates and ultimately increase the amount of money that will be generated in the economy.
Another solution to the college mental health problem is to have different ways to help students relieve stress and anxiety such as the Paws a -tively Stress Free event at the University of Central Florida.
At this event the university’s health center brings dogs to campus so that students can pet the dogs to relieve the stress of taking finals. This event attracts about 75 students in a short span of two hours. Dogs tend too great for relieving stress as Joanne Goldwater, associate dean of students and director of residence life at St. Mary’s College of Maryland states “Having that animal has clearly helped to reduce stress and anxiety for some students”. Dogs can have a great effect on a person they are like a best friend. In my experience, I have found dogs to be comforting and sometimes just petting or holding a dog is all you need to feel better when you have a great deal of
stress.
The college health crisis is a major issue across the nation and there are many causes however the dramatic transition to college and the poor handling of college mental health are the greatest reasons of why there is a crisis .While there is no one solution to fixing this problem ,improving and funding a colleges mental health center and having events such as the “Paws -a-tively stress free” could greatly improve the mental health of college students and would in turn improve the economy by millions of dollars.